“Fuck!” The soldier swore under her breath. Not that it mattered. A good scout could hear a fly fart from twenty feet away. 

“Language, Cutherd.” Lieutenant Finrad reprimanded her. “Stay professional.”

“Doesn’t matter much, Lieutenant. There’s nobody around to hear us anymore.” Velt interjected.

“Velt. You will only be able to say that there’s no one here once I say that there is no one here. Understood?”

“Yes sir!” Velt lazily saluted.

Sometimes, Finrad wondered why he put up with Velt. The man had a lackadaisical attitude that Finrad just could not get rid of, no matter how many drills he put the man through. 

Then he would remember that despite his flaws, Velt was his best scout. He was clever, level-headed, and an excellent marksman. 

That’s why it was so surprising to him that Velt missed the undead at nearly point blank. 

“Still don’t get how you missed that shot.” Cutherd grumbled, voicing the thought Finrad had.

“Neither do I!” Velt exclaimed. “I lined up the shot perfectly, but just before hitting, my hand shook!”

“Oh no, is our best marksman getting the shakes? Whatever will we do without--”

Finrad interrupted Cutherd. “Knock it off, you two. Keep focused.”

“Oh, lieutenant, you wound me!” Velt spoke with mock outrage. “I don’t ever lose focus. You know me, purely professional.”

“A professional should know that a good tracker requires silence.” Segald finally spoke up, his voice firm.

Velt finally shut up at that. 

Segald was kneeling on the ground, attempting to sense where the undead had gone. The members of their scout platoon all had different tracking skills they could use. Unlike the other members of the group, Segald had a vibration perception technique among his tracking skills. It was the only way they had been able to track them once they moved underground, but it seemed that the undead had managed to get out of range while causing some sort of distraction.

While Finrad wasn’t able to see what exactly had been done, it seemed to have disoriented Segald quite heavily. He looked like he was going to throw up at one point. It was why they tried to fireball the spot so heavily.

Unfortunately, it seemed that they hadn’t destroyed the distraction. Instead, its creator had been stopped using it once they were out of range.

Segald stood up. “Nothing. The bastard’s out of range.”

“Fuck.” Cutherd swore under her breath.

“Segald, Cuther, Language.” 

“I thought you said something about only being able to swear once the revenant was gone?” Velt said with a lazy smile.

“And I also said that it’s only gone once I say it’s gone.” Finrad replied before turning around to address the rest of the platoon with them, ten or so men. “Spread out. Search the edges of the field. It can’t have gotten far.”

Everyone began splitting up until Finrad added, “Except you, Velt. You’re with me.”

“Yes sir.” While Velt was smiling at Finrad, the Lieutenant had long grown accustomed to the man’s mannerisms. Velt was likely annoyed that he wasn’t going to be able to half ass his job. 

Of course, Finrad still couldn’t perfectly decipher his mannerisms, but he felt like he was getting better at it.

They walked through the grass for about half a minute before Velt whispered, “So, was this so we could speak privately?”

Finrad whispered back, “Not yet. Some may still hear us.”

“Paranoid as ever, Martin.” 

“Velt. Not yet.”

The two continued onwards in silence until they reached the road they had been traveling on before the encounter took place. They had rounded up all the horses and had left them waiting there. After the ambush, Cutherd had ridden back up the road with the horses they had left down the road so they wouldn’t get in the way while preparing the ambush. Unfortunately, the grass was too tall for the soldiers to properly ride them in the field, not that Finrad would have let them anyway.

“Now, we may speak.” Finrad said quietly.

“Yes. What did you bring us out here for? Are you still upset about me missing my shot?”

“I am, but not for the reason you may think.”

“Obviously it was because of divine interference.” Velt said with a straight face.

Finrad stared at Velt for a moment before sighing. “Surprisingly, I agree with you,” he said.

Velt motioned for him to explain. Finrad obliged.

“I missed, then you missed, and when you finally landed a shot, it was in the thing’s shoulder? That was some ridiculous shit if I’ve ever seen it.”

“Language, lieutenant.” 

“Oh, shove off. You’re our best marksman and you missed a shot at that range? I didn’t see the bolt veer, so something must have messed with your aim.”

“And yours.”

“Let me finish. There are a few skills that can do that, but none I know of that a weak undead like that would have had. So, I figure you’re right. Divine interference.”

“Hmmm… So a priest or a noble, then? Or perhaps, a chosen one?”

“Don’t even joke about that.” Finrad paused for a moment before continuing. “Doubt he was a priest. Probably a noble.”

“Sergeant wouldn’t be happy to hear about that.”

“No, I doubt he would. Do you think we should tell him?”

“We should. Best to tell him now before another group runs into him.”

“Shit. I was afraid you’d say that… Could you tell him for me?”

“I could.” Velt said with a smile. “I won’t.”

Finrad tsked. “You know how touchy he is about anything to do with the nobility. Lets his loyalty get in the way of practicality.”

“Took the words right out of--”

The two abruptly stopped conversing and turned to look at the forest. They both carefully observed the wooded area, carefully looking over everything they could see.

A gust of wind blew out from the forest, rustling the trees and swishing the grass behind the two.

After a long pause, Finrad spoke again, without taking his eyes off the forest.

“What did you think about Yult’s claim?”

“I’m not sure,” said Velt carefully, “but rock monsters aren’t unheard of. The problem is that her description of how it reacted is odd compared to the descriptions of most I’ve read.”

“In what way?” Finrad asked.

“Rocks aren’t known for being especially intelligent. They don’t usually run away or work with undead either.”

“That’s true.” Finrad said before turning back to face Velt. “How much do you think was true, then?”

“I think she saw something that used rocks. Maybe some earth attuned rodent, a pet of the undead, and it wrapped itself up in a rock shell to prevent being seen.”

“Yult said his lifesense failed on it.”

“Concealing skills that work on that are common among rodents. Wouldn’t surprise me if it failed.”

“True enough.” Finrad turned to look back at the forest.

Silence stretched onwards between the two. 

“What do you think of all this undead business anyways?” Velt asked Finrad. “Do you think the churches are telling the truth? There have been an awful lot of corpses walking about.”

“I’m not sure. I guess we’ll find out eventually.” Finrad said before finally turning around and walking back into the grasslands. “Let’s continue the search. Afterwards, we can get back on the road. Understood, Velt?”

“Understood, lieutenant.” Velt said as he followed him.

A soft wind blew through the forest behind them. Eyes watched from within the foliage.

These ones are not prey, it thought to itself. Their prey would be elsewhere.

HURGMCGURG

I added a cover. I made it myself. It shows my distinct lack of artistic skill.